John Podesta, U.S President Barack Obama's adviser who is a known environmentalist, expressed that he is willing to go against environmental groups for the sake of practicality.
"If you oppose all fossil fuels and you want to turn fossil fuels off tomorrow, that's a completely impractical way to move toward a clean-energy future," Podesta told the Wall Street Journal during a briefing for reporters about climate change programs. The comment is part of his reaction to the letter that 17 environmental groups sent to the President, asking him to oppose the initiative to export more natural gas from foreign countries.
The groups behind the letter were organized by 350.org and Sierra Club, two groups who are actively engaged in going against the establishment of the Keystone XL Pipeline. These groups are asking the concerned officials to take a deeper and broader review of the project.
This is not the first time that Podesta has reacted to other environmental groups. This year, he also questioned another letter by a larger set of environmental groups convincing the administration to let go of all of its energy programs concerning fossil fuels.
While talking about the impracticality of abandoning all fossil fuel energy sources, he also discussed the new rules in regulating the use of methane gas.
"We are in the throes of finalizing a methane strategy across the government," he told WSJ. "You can expect an announcement in the not too distant future."
Podesta's reactions to issue regarding fuel sources reflect the way that White House deals with the matter. Currently, the administration is looking into a wider application of natural gas while regulating the emissions coming from fossil fuel energy sources. Natural gas is considered as the "cleanest-burning fossil fuel" and it accounts for 50 percent less emission than coal and 30 percent less than oil.
